In high school she was a 4.0 student, active in both glee club and drama society; her senior class voted her "Most Talented".

After graduating from George Washington Preparatory High School in 1966, Graves elected to take his offer to join the singing group over a fully paid music scholarship to USC.

Graves pivotal role in the 1974 ABC crime drama television movie and later series Get Christie Love!

An article in the November 1974 issue of Jet magazine described Graves as "television's most delightful detective, the epitome of a tough lady cop with more feminine features than Venus".

[9] Due to moral conflicts with scripts and other aspects in the entertainment industry, Graves chose to retire from acting and performing in 1984.

She resided at 3437 West 78th Place in the Hyde Park neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, where she cared for her mother.